Yahoo will cut about 20% of its workforce, or 1,600 employees, as it seeks to streamline and strengthen its ad tech business.
Overall, about half of the employees in the Yahoo for Business ad unit will be affected as the company restructures it into a new division, called Yahoo Advertising.
- About 1,000 employees are expected to be let go this week, while another 600 workers will be laid off in six months.
- Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzonet told Axios that the job cuts aren't due to the economy but are intended to strengthen the advertising unit, which is unprofitable.
- He said the cuts will enable Yahoo to invest in other profitable areas and focus on its flagship advertising demand side platform, now called Yahoo Advertising.
- As a whole, Yahoo is profitable with around $8B in revenue annually. The company is owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which acquired 90% of Yahoo from Verizon in 2021 for $5B.
- As of today, an estimated 334 tech companies have laid off a total of 101,617 employees in 2023, according to Layoffs.fyi.
